Amazon.com: Teaching Hearts and Minds: Colege Students Reflect on the Vietnam War (9780809317486): Associate Professor Barry M. Kroll B.A. A.M. Ph.D.: Books
In this book, Barry M. Kroll tells how college students in the late 1980s responded to his course on the Vietnam War in literature. Kroll designed the course to engage students’ hearts and minds in the processes of connected and critical inquiry. He argues that students should be personally absorbed in a topic—emotionally connected to key issues and texts—if inquiry is to be more than a perfunctory exercise.
Kroll raises a number of important critical questions about texts and meaning, particularly concerning the nature of authority and the reader’s role in creating meaning. He focuses on students’ efforts to think reflectively about literary representation, historical truth, and moral justification. Drawing on John Dewey’s concept of reflective inquiry, Kroll asserts that his course did not challenge his students to "acquire" information, but rather to "inquire"—to explore, probe, and query.
Barry M. Kroll is associate professor of English at Indiana University and a coeditor, with Eugene R. Kintgen and Mike Rose, of Perspectives on Literacy.
Product Details
Hardcover: 216 pages
Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (March 30, 1992)
This review is from: Teaching Hearts and Minds: Colege Students Reflect on the Vietnam War (Hardcover)
I had Dr. Kroll for this class at IU, and some of my journal entries are used in his book. This class had a tremendous effect on me, having grown up without any understanding of the Vietnam War. It was one of those classes that has had a lifetime effect on its students. For anyone interested in teaching about Vietnam, Dr. Kroll's approach is a great model
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This review is from: Teaching Hearts and Minds: Colege Students Reflect on the Vietnam War (Hardcover)
In this book, Dr. Kroll takes us inside his class on Vietnam War literature in order to show how a teacher can use the richness of the material to engage students and to help them develop crucial critical thinking skills. Dr. Kroll gives a useful overview to the structure of his class, whereby the literature and assignments form a meaningful progression that continually challenges students to respond, analyze, rethink, and write. The book includes a detailed list of readings and, most helpfully, models for assignments. What comes through most in this book, however, is Dr. Kroll's commitment to both the material and his students. He pays careful attention to their writing and their responses to material that can be very disturbing on a number of levels. When I was a graduate student at Indiana University, I was fortunate enough to work with Dr. Kroll when he taught this course there. This experience was easily the most significant one I have had in my teaching career; I have never witnessed a higher level of commitment on the part of a teacher nor a more favorable and affectionate response to a teacher from his students. If you are at all interested in using Vietnam War writing in your classroom, you must read this book.
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